A perfect score on the college entrance exam? The Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng has astonis

The two of them walked along, exchanging a few words like two elementary school students on their way home from school.

The sun was shining brightly, the wind was gentle, and the cicadas chirped intermittently by the roadside, like an accompaniment without lyrics.

while walking.

Su Wanci's voice suddenly slowed down, and the smile on her face faded, as if she had something to say but didn't know how to say it.

She glanced at Chen Mo.

She lowered her head again, her fingers unconsciously starting to twist the hem of her skirt.

Chen Mo noticed it.

But he didn't say anything; he just slowed his pace, bringing the two of them a little closer.

"Chen Mo."

She finally spoke, her voice soft.

"Um."

"What you just said... in the pavilion..."

Her voice grew softer and softer.

"You said that 'Ode to the Goddess of the Luo River' was written for someone, but who... is that person?"

She lowered her head immediately after saying that.

Her ears were so red they looked like they were about to bleed, and the redness spread from the tips of her ears to her cheeks, and from her cheeks to her neck.

Her fingers twisted the hem of her skirt until her knuckles turned white, and the hem of the skirt was all crumpled from her rubbing.

Her heart was pounding so hard it felt like someone was drumming on her chest, each beat hitting her eardrums.

She both anticipated and feared the answer.

I was hoping he would say that name.

What I'm afraid of is that the name isn't hers.

These two emotions were like two snakes, coiling around her heart and making it hard for her to breathe.

Chen Mo glanced at her.

Then he laughed.

It's a kind of smug laugh.

With a slight upturn of the corners of his mouth and a gentle twitch of his eyebrows, he exuded an aura of "I'm not telling you."

"Guess," he said.

Su Wanci was stunned for a moment. "What?"

"you guess."

Chen Mo repeated it, his tone light as if he were asking, "What should we eat today?"

Su Wanci's face turned even redder, not from embarrassment, but from anger.

"You...you want me to guess? How am I supposed to guess?"

"Guess carefully."

Chen Mo took his hand out of his pocket and made a "please" gesture.

"Chen Mo!"

Su Wanci's voice rose half an octave, but there was no anger in that tone, only the coquettishness of a teased little girl.

"Be serious!"

"I'm very serious."

Chen Mo's expression was indeed very serious, but his eyes were full of smiles.

"You asked me a question, and I gave you a solution. Guess, isn't that reasonable?"

"What's so reasonable about it?!"

Su Wanci stomped her foot in frustration, her canvas shoes making a soft "thump" sound on the asphalt road.

"Can't you just say so?"

"It's pointless to just say it directly."

Chen Mo said, "It's like eating without chewing; you can feel full, but it has no flavor."

Su Wanci was so angry at his analogy that she wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.

She bit her lip, glared at Chen Mo, her cheeks puffed out like an angry little pufferfish.

Seeing her like this, Chen Mo's smile widened even more.

"Alright,"

He said his voice suddenly softened.

"Let me keep you in suspense for now, and I'll tell you later who my goddess of the Luo River is."

He kept looking at Su Wanci as he said this.

His gaze was neither too heavy nor too light, neither too deep nor too shallow.

Su Wanci froze completely under that gaze.

Her heart skipped a beat for a moment, then bounced back at twice the speed.

She opened her mouth as if to say something, but her lips only moved; not a single word came out.

She lowered her head.

But you can't see the feet.

Only a tiny bit of the toes could be seen.

A small speck of mud has appeared on the white surface of my canvas shoes sometime during the day.

She stared at the mud spot for a long time, so long that it became blurry, larger, and more indistinct in her vision.

She didn't dare look into his eyes.

Because once she looked at her face, she knew it would turn bright red.

She was thinking frantically in her mind.

Was the person he was talking about me?

When does he mean "later"?

Is the "Goddess of the Luo River" he mentioned really me?

If so, when will he say it?

How should I respond after I say that?

Should I nod or shake my head?

Should we agree or not?

What should I say if I agree?

If you don't agree.

No, why not agree?

She took a deep breath, then another, but her heart still didn't slow down.

"Who...who wants to hear what you have to say later?"

She finally managed to utter a sentence, her voice barely audible, like a mosquito's buzz.

"Say it or don't, it's up to you."

"Okay, then I won't say anything more," Chen Mo said.

"you--"

Su Wanci suddenly looked up and saw the smug smile on Chen Mo's face, realizing that she had been tricked again.

She raised her hand as if to hit him again, but halfway up, she laughed first.

As she laughed, her eyes welled up with tears.

It's not sadness.

She has known him for eighteen years.

She thought she knew everything about him, from kindergarten to high school together.

I know what kind of insects he's afraid of, and I know he makes a lot of noise when he eats noodles.

I know he locks himself in his room if he fails his exam.

She thought he was just like that: quiet, taciturn, not very talkative, not good at academics, and someone who needed her to take care of him.

But today, standing in the pavilion, he wrote, "Graceful as a startled swan, lithe as a swimming dragon."

He stood in front of everyone and said, "All you need are hands."

He stood beside her, looked into her eyes, and said, "I'll tell you later who my goddess is."

He stood in front of everyone and said, "All you need are hands."

He stood beside her, looked into her eyes, and said, "I'll tell you later who my goddess is."

She suddenly realized.

She never really knew him.

What's even more terrifying is that she finds herself getting to know him all over again, and in the process, little by little, uncontrollably, and willingly, she falls deeper and deeper into it.

"Let's go."

Chen Mo's voice came from the side, still in that calm and even tone.

"It'll get dark if we don't leave now."

Su Wanci wiped the corner of her eye with the back of her hand, hummed in agreement, and followed in his footsteps.

She walked to his right, head down, unable to suppress the smile on her lips.

He was to her left, his hands in his pockets, walking at a leisurely pace.

The two people were about a fist's width apart.

The distance was just right—not too far, not too close—just enough for the wind to blow, just enough for the sunlight to filter through, just enough for two hearts to hear each other's beating without touching.

One day later.

The video of Luoshui Scenic Area spread like wildfire across the internet.

It didn't spread slowly; it spread explosively.

Within an hour of uploading, it garnered over a million views.

It broke five million in two hours.

It broke 20 million in four hours.

The same name appeared simultaneously on the trending topics lists of Douyin, Weibo, Bilibili, and Xiaohongshu:

Chen Mo.

But this time, the trending topics have changed.

It's no longer "perfect score on the college entrance exam" or "anyone can do it," but rather three words—"Ode to the Goddess of the Luo River."

The video was shot from the perspective of the program's camera crew, and after post-production editing, it was accompanied by subtitles and background music.

The beginning of the video.

This was before Chen Mo took the stage.

The crowd's doubts, the passersby's disdain, the bespectacled boy's "What the hell is this?", and his girlfriend's "The format is all wrong."

The screen was filled with "hahaha" and "waiting to be proven wrong".

...

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